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I'm finally back from my 6˝ months trip in South East Asia. Actually I already came back six weeks ago, but shortly after my arrival the annual military service called for my duty...

To put it in a nutshell, it was a half year of adventure, action, culinary climaxes and definitely an eye opener in terms of culture and personhood.

In hindsight I recommend anyone to do the same if he's got the time (money is often not the problem). Pack your backpack, pull out from home for a year or half and make your experiences. It's much easier and uncomplicated than it seems.

Welcome back Murikov! That must have been a very exciting adventure for you. I did look at your travel blog from time to time while you were away. I remember reading that you were attacked by a monkey! You took some great photos.

As for that monkey attack, it was a son of a bitch in Thailand who decided to suddenly bite and scratch my lower arm. Nothing serious, but I was lucky that I didn't get rabies or any infection from it.

I made this particular photo before that prick jumped at me one second later. Who knows, maybe the camera was pissing him off. Just look at his frantic eyes.

If you wanna see more travel footage you can do so on my travel blog. Due to limited time I couldn't write much about Vietnam, but I'll probably upload some posts afterwards.

First of all thanks to Stray for updating the GOTMs and sorry for my lack of support!

If anyone's wondering why the hell I wasn't here to do so by myself, I've been in Asia again for four and half months. It was again hobo backpacking with a daily budget of about $30.

I quickly share some of my pictures. Please, if somebody needs some advice on traveling Asia on a budget, please feel free to ask.

Indonesia:

This was definitely the most adventurous and the cheapest country of this trip. If you want to experience outdoor action on a daily basis, then Indonesia is the place to go.

Uluwatu, Bali

Sunset at Uluwatu

Scooter exploring in Bali

Lemukhi Waterfall, Bali

Mount Rinjani, Lombok

Our tent at the rim of Mount Rinjani

Hungry fellows in Sape, Sumbawa

Sunset in Labuan Bajo, Komodo

Approaching one of the many islands in Komodo

Padar Island, Komodo National Park

Deer and Komodo Dragons co-existing in Komodo National Park

Komodo Dragon

One hungry fellow

Spiderweb rice fields in Ruteng, Flores

Mount Enerie near Bajawa, Flores

Mount Ebulobo, Flores

Mount Iya as seen from beach near Ende, Flores

View from Mount Iya

Mount Kelimutu, Flores

Somewhere on a road in South Sulawesi

Probably fish farms near Palopo, Sulawesi

Typical Tana Toraja house in Rantepao, Sulawesi

Random farmer dude trying to kill a snake in his field

Settlement in Rantepao

Water buffalo BBQ sticks with curry

The rice terraces of Rantepao

Tana Toraja rock grave

Random cock fight in Rantepao

Ancient rock graves in Rantepao

Japan:

Definitely the most expensive, but culturally most unique country of this year's trip. But it's still possible to travel to Japan with not such a fat purse and too see quite some things at the end of the day. With the use of regional transport passes and good 'ol internet it's still possible to ball on a budget.

Sensi wrote:
You were able to move again for a long time, this travel more then four months away, lucky guy! How can you do that? Did you experienced some funny moments with people and watched strange animals?

As for time, I quit my last job in April and will start studying full-time in September, so I used that interim for traveling. As for money, I saved a few bucks from work and while traveling always looked for the cheapest flights, accomodation, transport and sometimes even food. Countries in South East Asia are cheap as hell; a good meal costs about 2 to 3 USD, renting scooters are about 5 USD a day, most short-distance flights in South East Asia cost about 20 to 50 USD, good double rooms are maximum USD 10 a night... And if you're traveling with a friend you can even share some of the costs like accomodation or some transport (taxi etc.).

More developed places like Japan, Taiwan or even China need a little more research and effort, but can still be visited with a tight budget. See here or here for example.

As for adventures, we especially had them in Indonesia. You'll experience something crazy every single day, especially if you rent your own scooter. One particular scene that comes into mind was during our scooter trip in South Sulawesi, where we rented scooters for about 7 days to do a loop from Makassar to Tana Toraja and back. On our way back to Makassar we once got lost on a busy highway, so we asked some policemen at a station for help. These guys were so excited to help foreigners that they arranged an exclusive motorbike escort to the next town and to lead us the way. Not many cops in Switzerland would do the same...

Animal-wise we particularly saw black gibbons crossing the road in Indonesia sometimes, some smaller snakes too. Since Thailand in 2014 I'm a bit cautious when approaching any monkeys or maqaques or so... In Japan the deer in Nara or Miyajima were quite fun as well, since they try to steal any food you're carrying with you - soft ice cream and even maps included...

Japan, Taiwan and China were a bit less adventurous, since everything is quite developed and regulated. In Japan I especially enjoyed some of the encounters we had with the locals who wanted to demonstrate their English skills - at some parts we really felt like being in a bad anime. At one point a drunk business man in Osaka once stumbled in front of a Family Mart store and I had to help him to find a taxi. It's needless to say that it was a hilarious scene and often these situations are much more memorable than all the sightseeing locations you actually planned to see.

In China on the other hand the locals are much less shy than in Japan and are normally very interested in foreigners. Once a family in Longsheng invited us to dinner and they prepared snails pickled in chili sauce for us - for them it was hilarious to see us westerner trying to suck out snails from the snail shells.

The good thing at traveling on a long-term is that you will meet lots of new people to travel together - and some of them you will definitely meet again at some point.

But what you cannot see on the photos are the downsides of traveling; the nasty research we sometimes had to do, people who try to rip you off sometimes, a plan that didn't work out because of weather, et cetera.

But at the end of the day I recommend anyone to take the courage to do the trip you always wanted to do. Often it's not a money problem, but a time issue. Work and family are often in the way. But if you find yourself with a couple of months of free time, then definitely do it. On the spot everything is often much easier than imagined.

Thank you for the extended info Muri.
I agree with your story and it's very recognisable. Did you start alone and get along with a few people? Did you plan some accommodations and stick too some kind of route?
I suppose you needed vaccinations too!

The attack of the monkey on your previous trip did come back again in mind.
The photo of him makes me always laugh, those frantic eyes

Great pics even if I cannot go I recognised a lot of stuff, battleship island the dear who come to the temple also Sadly the Hiroshima epicentre "I have real pictures taken here just after the war my fathers uncle was a Japanese pow on his way home he visited Hiroshima" his pictures are a stark contrast.

Seems like you had a great time and even got a bit of arcade action in.

Sensi wrote:
Did you start alone and get along with a few people? Did you plan some accommodations and stick too some kind of route?

I suppose you needed vaccinations too!

The attack of the monkey on your previous trip did come back again in mind.
The photo of him makes me always laugh, those frantic eyes

The first trip two years ago I did alone. But in South East Asia you will meet lots of other travelers everyday to do daytrips with. And even then it's sometimes more convenient to do something alone.

This year's trip I traveled with a German who I actually met back then in Vietnam two years ago. But even that recent rip would have been no problem to do alone!

As for accomodations, in most parts of South East Asia you can spontanously chose your accomodation, since they are vastly available and cheap. In Japan, Taiwan and China it might be better to check the internet (Wikitravel) or the guide book before getting somewhere, since they can be more expensive and sometimes fully booked. But even then it's no problem to book them thanks to booking websites like Hotelscombined, Agoda et cetera.

The route / itinerary is completely up to you - you can have a rough plan beforehand, but you can still change your mind if you want to stay longer somewhere or if you want to skip a place. For the application of the Chinese visa for example you can easily attach fake \ cancellable hotel reservations.

Oh yeah, and that maqaque was a bastard. I'm still happy he didn't have rabies et cetera, haha!

Speaking of vaccinations, I think you're fine if you already have got your basic vaccinations like tetanus or Hepatitis etc. Personally I think that Malaria warnings in Asia are absolutely overpanicked. If you only worry about possible (but unlikely) illnesses, you simply can't enjoy your travels.

Sadly the Hiroshima epicentre "I have real pictures taken here just after the war my fathers uncle was a Japanese pow on his way home he visited Hiroshima" his pictures are a stark contrast.

You should definitely visit Hiroshima or Nagasaki one day - both are definitely worth a visit and both atom bomb museums are a must-visit. I think everyone should have such an interesting insight into nuclear warfare, since we still face that issue up to today.

But both cities also offer lots of daytrip options and are anyway convenient places to stay.

Muri, I'm intrigued by the manga cafe accomodation. You were able to sleep there in such small cabin?

Yes indeed, in fact I really enjoyed my stay there! The mattress is comfy enough, it's pretty quiet, you've got your own PC and - the best - there are even free soft drinks and even coffee for refill! Of course the manga books are in Japanese only, but you can still read them online at Mangafox et cetera.

Furthermore you can also use the shower for about 100 Yen and facilities such as toilets et cetera are freely available.

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